The Openness of God

The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God

Richard Rice

I confess, although I think this book I read today is spot on theologically, it sure did take a lot of words to be so. In a nut shell, this is a collaborative work in theology and philosophy arguing that a Biblical sound understanding of God entails a belief in a God who believes in open engagement with human beings, an engagement in which knowledge is gained by BOTH participants and responses are determined by evolving knowledge in a reciprocal way. We act and feel differently as we learn more. God acts and responds differently as He learns more. As the author's put it "In loving dialogue, God invites us to participate with him to bring the future into being. ... not only does he influence them but they influence him." In short, God may not do all that he intends to do though he may always plan to. He does not, to put it the way the authors of this text do, ever say he intends to do something that he is not at the time planning to do. But much is contingent, relying on the dynamic of interaction. In other words, "it is part of God's unchanging nature to change".

Augustine was apparently once asked what God was doing before creation and Augustine apparently said "Making hell for those who pry too deep."

I guess that would be me.

The conclusions that one must eventually come to as a result of this sort of thinking (And the first chapter of the books argues that it is consistent with Biblical teaching while a second explains where alternative theologies had their origin and a third chapter discusses the philosophical consistency) is that if one were to get guidance from God, it could be based on presuppositions that God is making that might or might not turn out to be true. In short, God could wind up giving advice that is good advice but that ultimately does not lead to the desired results because something happens between the giving of the advise and the consequences."

I suspect that most people will prefer to discard portions of the primary sources they draw their perceptions of God from rather than draw the conclusion that they might ... just might ... follow God right over a cliff if other involved people make choices that God might not necessarily predict. Besides, such a veiw would ruin a few hymns that state that the facts are to the contrary. And yet, ...

Question for Comment: Do you think of God as working "for you" or "with you" or "in spite of you" most of the time? If you think of such things at all that is?
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